Tuesday, January 31, 2012

This is a reminder that tonight local musicians Margaret Darling (of the Seedy Seeds) and Serenity Fisher are teaming up to support Luke Brockmeier. Tuesday January 31st come to Sitwell's Coffee House at 7PM and hear these talented musicians play. A suggested donation of $5 is mentioned, but not required.

Jason Wells of For Algernon is the special quest appearing with Margaret.

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Cincinnati Young Professionals' Choral Collective are staging a concert, Sin & Tonic, February 14th as an early start for Valentine's Day at Below Zero. From the Press Release:

Audience members will listen with martinis in hand to quality choral music that explores all aspects of love. The doors (and the bar) will be open from 6-10pm, and the performance will take place from 6:45 – 7:30pm. Audience members are invited to start their Valentine’s Day evening with bawdy English madrigals, sassy French chansons, gorgeous vocal jazz arrangements and soaring American spirituals…or to make a whole night of it!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Cincinnati Enquirer had very interesting article on the pre-historic glacial history of the Cincinnati area. We were just on the edge of where the last ice age affected the North American continent, and the effects can be felt not only in the topography, but in our weather.

I really like the historical articles the Enquirer has been publishing. Cincinnati has such a long past to draw from. I would love to read more about the 19th century.

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Local musicians Margaret Darling (of the Seedy Seeds) and Serenity Fisher are teaming up to support Luke Brockmeier. Tuesday January 31st come to Sitwell's Coffee House at 7PM and hear these talented musicians play. A suggested donation of $5 is mentioned, but not required.

There are rumors of special guests as well. To find out who, you'll have to come to Sitwell's.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Former Cincinnati Council Member Chris Bortz appears to most political observers to be positioning himself for a political run as a Republican. No, he's not made any type of announcement. He's done two things. First he is openly supporting a Republican candidate in the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional district. That alone indicates he's a Republican, at least on National issues. He's joined forces with anti-city and anti-gay bigot Chris Finney to support that Republican candidate. Linking one's name to Finney on any level is deplorable in my view, but politically it shows who you are willing to court to get what you want. In the case of Finney it indicates you are not courting a moderate city voter, you are instead willing to dive into the conservative sewer.

Where we can see the political posturing more up-close is in the other thing he did. He's taken a blatant political position that is an attempt to align himself with conservative anti-City Republican voters. He has changed his stance on the Streetcar. He'll deny he has, I am sure, but no, you don't support something during the bottom of a recession when Federal Dollars were very available, and then oppose it now, claiming we wait and think about it more. I guess Chris thinks we need more suburbanites to support it before we do it. I didn't know that we had to be subservient to them. I guess when you are thinking about running for a political office that would either include suburbanites or need there money to win, then you care what they think about. Since they don't care about the city, why would those in the city care what they think about us? It sounds like he's bring drinking a cup of what ever Leslie Ghiz was drinking.

Bortz has flip-flopped. He's pulled a Mitt Romney. The Streetcar is now Bortz's RomneyCare. Being for the streetcar was a position that helped him get elected in the city. Positive ideas that benefit the city tend to get most voters support. Anti-city or divisive issues don't get you votes. Negative thinking is more rampant with local Republican voters, so if you are going to get their votes, you have to change your views to fit. Bortz has made a big change and it's not a pretty sight.

I'd like to have his flip-flop graded for political posterity, but it would require diving judges, and none were available.

A complaint has been filed by a Cincinnati resident charging that Cincinnati City Council Member Christopher Smitherman is in violation of Ohio ethics rules. Smiherman is simultaneously holding the positions of city council member and President of the Cincinnati Chapter of the NAACP, a 501(c)(4) organization.

There is clearly a conflict of interest. Smitherman should either resign from council or more likely resign as President of the local NAACP chapter.

I seem to recall Smitherman recently wanted the city to pay for Ethics classes. Well, Council Member Smitherman appears to not have taken his class yet. Any person with any sense of ethics would see the conflict of being on council and being President of the local NAACP. That leas me to believe that Smitherman lacks ethics. The reasonability test has bee exceeded ten-fold, so this compliant has merit. The city should be investigating Smitherman to make sure he is not in violation of Ohio ethics rules.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Tomorrow, Wednesday January 18th, Luke Brockmeier, Democratic candidate for the New 31st Ohio House District, is gathering up those in the social media world for a meet and greet to discuss the issues facing the community and Ohio. The event takes place at Baba Budan's, 239 W. McMillan St., and starts and 6PM and will end around 8PM. All are welcome.

Monday, January 16, 2012

Bill Sloat at The Daily Bellwether has an important article detailing the latest bigoted action by the hateful Phil Burress, one of the leading anti-gay bigots in the state of Ohio.

A man who does not even live in the City of Cincinnati is threatening to file a lawsuit because the City Council voted in favor of Domestic Partner insurance coverage. This is clear evidence, as if we need any more, that Burress's anti-gay marriage crusade was never about 'protecting' marriage, but it was all about oppressing gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, and transgendered people. The city isn't marrying anyone, they are trying to provide equal benefits to all of its employees. I wish they were allowing gay marriage, but far too many ignorant bigots voted to oppress people when they baned gay marriage in Ohio, making that against the law. Treating gays and lesbians with equal rights is what Burress is fighting against. Equal rights should be for all, not just the Phil Burress clan.

I feel like a broken record on this subject and I feel that most of readers of this blog think Burress is horrible, but he has an audience. I hope everyone who opposes the bigotry of Burress takes every opportunity to speak out against his type of bigotry. The people who could speak most directly to this are those of you who participate in the large number of religious institutions across the region. Many (not all) of those institutions have terrible stances on gay rights. I encourge those of you who face that bigoty to speak out against it and at least question the faux rationalizations used to justify the type of bigotry Burress pushes.

Preaching to the choir only goes so far, sometimes you have to stand up and speak out, even if you risk your reputation. That's how all civil rights issues should be addressed. It is a shame that religion, in the case of gay rights, is far too often the hurddle to make many silently let that bigotry exist in the places based on the philosphies of peace.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

CityBeat has revamped it's print copy with this week's edition and editor Danny Cross has a column decscribing the changes and some background on himself as the new editor of the Alt-Weekly.

The changes are three fold. First the paper has a fresh new design that I like a lot. The page headings and titles are much appealing and pleasing to the eye. The second element is the order of sections, which move the music to the back and the arts & culture (art,theatre, film, dining) all together. The third element is the most striking: more relevant content. The inclusion of a focused stand along cover story has returned, which is not just a highlight of one section's story. Also the inclusion of a media and sports column along with more than one news story (in addition to Porkopolis)add more meat to the publication.

I like this week's edition and look forward to more. I hope the structure continues.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Why couldn't COAST pay for an ethics lesson for Chris Smitherman himself? That would do hopefully do the most good, as long as COAST is not conducting the ethics lesson, since they don't have any. This would be a great alternative to Smitherman's motion he submitted to council requiring training sessions for council members and their staff, something the City already does.
Smitherman needs a lesson in ethics. Some of things he should learn:

Don't threaten to have your non-city-employee lawyer sue the city because council didn't vote your way.

Don't even consider frivolous lawsuits that are more about getting legal work for your anti-city lawyer than a valid legal issue.

Don't go on the Radio and falsely claim a member city council works for the CIA.

Don't claim that a reason to vote for a position on the waterworks ballot issue would be to prevent the government from lacing the water of black residents with drugs.

Don't make up numbers about how much the Streetcar plan will cost.

Don't lie to the public when you claim Streetcar funds could be used to avoid police or fire layoffs.

Those are just the start of the many thinks Smitherman could learn. They are mostly just common sense, but a bright examples of what not to do. I really hope Smitherman can learn from these examples.

Monday, January 09, 2012

Bill Sloat of the Daily Bellwether has an interesting article that outlines the Differences among the candidates running for the Democratic nomination for the newly redrawn District 31 Ohio House seat. Women's rights comes forward as the most striking difference where only one candidate, Luke Brockmeier, is in sync with the district's overwhelming belief in protecting a woman's right to choose. Sloat describes at length the record of Denise Driehaus and exposes her support for a GOP sponsored anti-abortion bill. Tranter, the third candidate, was endorsed by Ohio Right to Life, something previously held by Denise Driehaus when she ran on the west side of town. The new 31st District is not a Westside haven for Conservative Dems. The issue of choice matters in progressive neighborhoods. I'm guessing Driehaus and Tranter don't know much about the district or just hope no one notices their anti-women's rights beliefs.

Quimbob at Blogging Isn't Cool brings up the campaign Mantra of Hamilton County Commissioner Chris Monzel and points out that Monzel failed to balance the county's budget through "efficiencies." Yeah, Monzel actually claimed he could do that. The Suburban Republican Monzel has not appeared to learn much while in office, other than how to screw over tax-payers.

Thursday, January 05, 2012

The Hamilton County Board of a elections has rejected the challenge to the residency of Denise Driehaus who moved into the new district 31 district after leaving her old district after the Republican made her old area more difficult for her to win. Tranter, another candidate was challenging her residentcy via proxy because, as this quote from Tranter in the article from WVXU puts it

"It was perfect for me to run in. She decided to move over into it even though she has no familiarity with the district or it's constituents."

Yes, Tranter has a political point to make. Driehaus is not from this district. She's lived on the Westside her entire life and fits in with the Westside Conservatives, not this progressive district. That is a reason not to vote for her. It is not grounds for a legal case. The challenges Tranter made via his neighbor were frivolous and a waste of tax payer's money.

The even bigger waste was in the challenge to the ballot signatures for Driehaus and candidate Luke Brockmeier. 50 signatures is the low requirement and both candidates had more than enough valid signatures. There was no evidence of any problem and other than getting some media attention, served no purpose. Tranter is making a huge mistake. He should not focus on being bitter that he has to face off against two other candidates. He should face the fact that along with Denise Driehaus, he's not living in a conservative Democratic district. He's living in a really progressive House district. He might want to ponder how to climb that Mt. Everest before playing political games.

Wednesday, January 04, 2012

COAST lawyer Chris Finney has successfully shaken-down the City of Cincinnati on an invented scheme that gave his law firm $10,000 of tax payer's money. Yes, let's get this straight. A self-professed anti-tax group sued the city on a non-issue worth a few dollars and managed to get paid $10,000 to do it by the City.

Yes, to repeat, again: an anti-tax group staged a frivolous lawsuit over a few dollars and then collected 10,000 dollars worth of tax payer money. The anti-tax group who claims to want to reduce spending, maneuvered the City into paying it's lawyers $10,000 of money they don't want the City to Spend. The anti-tax group forced the City to waste tax payer's money.

Is it just me or is the level of insanity and hypocrisy emanating from the area around Chris Finney's fat head causing earthquakes in Youngstown?

COAST has one goal: Destroy the city. They are not yet forming an army or planting bombs, but their goal is clearly the destruction of the city. If they think that what they do is anything else, then they are even more delusional than they appear.